Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Arsonist: A novel
    Unavailable
    The Arsonist: A novel
    Unavailable
    The Arsonist: A novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Arsonist: A novel

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the best-selling author of While I Was Gone and The Senator's Wife, a superb new novel about a family and a community tested when an arsonist begins setting fire to the homes of the summer people in a small New England town.

    Troubled by the feeling that she belongs nowhere after working in East Africa for fifteen years, Frankie Rowley has come home-home to the small New Hampshire village of Pomeroy and the farmhouse where her family has always summered. On her first night back, a house up the road burns to the ground. Then another house burns, and another, always the houses of the summer people. In a town where people have never bothered to lock their doors, social fault lines are opened, and neighbors begin to regard one another with suspicion. Against this backdrop of menace and fear, Frankie begins a passionate, unexpected affair with the editor of the local paper, a romance that progresses with exquisite tenderness and heat toward its own remarkable risks and revelations.

    Suspenseful, sophisticated, rich in psychological nuance and emotional insight, The Arsonist is vintage Sue Miller-a finely wrought novel about belonging and community, about how and where one ought to live, about what it means to lead a fulfilling life. One of our most elegant and engrossing novelists at her inimitable best.


    From the Hardcover edition.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 24, 2014
    ISBN9780307876027
    Unavailable
    The Arsonist: A novel

    Related to The Arsonist

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jan 25, 2024

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Keefe, Beagin, Welsh, and More

      Feb 26, 2019

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Patrick Radden Keefe, Jen Beagin, Irvine Welsh and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to

      6 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jan 25, 2024

      The latest novel from Hannah Richell is a change of pace from her previous books, moving firmly into the locked-room murder thriller genre. “In this case the ‘room’ is a peninsula that the characters can’t escape and the murder victim’s identity isn’

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Prose, Johnson, Sestanovich, and More

      Jun 29, 2021

      This week we're looking at new titles from Francine Prose, Diane Johnson, and Jason Mott. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Prose, Johnson, Sestanovich, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Take It Easy

      Jul 6, 2019

      This has been a year of delicious summer reads—for me, at least. I’d long considered the genre to be frivolous, a waste of time when I could delve into more serious fiction. You know, the books one should read. Well, any of these could find a place i

      1 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Apr 19, 2023

      Great Read
      3 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Vuong, Arnett, Dennis-Benn, Ohlin, and More

      Jun 4, 2019

      Three novelistic debuts, a James Beard Award–winner's memoir, and the latest from 'Eat, Pray, Love' author Elizabeth Gilbert. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Vuong, Arnett, Dennis-Benn, Ohlin, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      A Novel To Fall Hard For

      Mar 14, 2023

      Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld Curtis Sittenfeld has a gift for writing women. Whether imagining real lives (Hillary Clinton in Rodham, Laura Bush in American Wife), or reinventing fictional ones (Lizzie Bennet in Eligible), her characters

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      May 25, 2020

      In this novel, set amid the Spanish Civil War, Isabel Allende gives us a short but incisive account of the horrors of war, as seen through the eyes of the Dalmau family from Barcelona, the Republican forces’ centre. It’s 1938, and the Republicans are

      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Howrey, Johanne Lykke Holm, Collins, and More

      Nov 15, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Meg Howrey, Johanne Lykke Holm, Billy Collins, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Mil

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Howrey, Johanne Lykke Holm, Collins, and More

      Nov 15, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Meg Howrey, Johanne Lykke Holm, Billy Collins, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Mil

      4 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Fung, Anam, Bell, and More

      Jul 13, 2021

      Here’s a quick look at some new books from the likes of Pik-Shuen Fung, Tahmima Anam, and Matt Bell. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Fung, Anam, Bell, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Provocative Reads

      May 13, 2022

      Samantha is an influencer and self-help guru who has become a wealthy celebrity with millions of female followers, whom she refers to as “her girls”. They’re ready to like all her posts, buy all her products to better their lives and tickets to her s

      2 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Messud, Boland, and More

      Oct 13, 2020

      This week we're looking at new titles from the likes of Claire Messud, Eavan Boland, and Max Gross. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Messud, Boland, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Holiday Reads

      Dec 8, 2023

      BY SARA OCHS TRANSWORLD Take a beautiful island setting and mix in a few murders and plenty of mystery and intrigue – and you’re got a recipe for the perfect summer read. Little wonder that The Dive is being hyped as the biggest debut thriller of th

      8 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring VanderMeer, Hess, Murugan, Olafsson, and More

      Dec 3, 2019

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Jeff VanderMeer, Annette Hess, Perumal Murugan, Olaf Olafsson, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring VanderMeer, Hess, Murugan, Olafss

      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Serpell, Englander, Lalami, Leithauser, Hempel, and More

      Mar 26, 2019

      This week's new books include Amy Hempel's first collection in 16 years, Knausgaard on Edvard Munch, and essays from the co-founder of Very Smart Brothas. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Serpell, Englander, Lalami, Leithauser, Hempel, and

      7 min read

    • Article

      Subscriber Spotlight

      Apr 2, 2020

      Subscriber Spotlight
      10 min read

    • Article

      Reading CORNER

      Feb 26, 2023

      Writer Eva delivers a February to remember Pop music lovers who remember the ’90s are going to get a huge hit of nostalgia while reading this novel. Set in London, it brings the era and its sounds alive vividly. However, it is billed as a feel-good

      3 min read

    • Article

      Santa Montefiore

      Oct 1, 2020

      Santa Montefiore
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Genre-bending Must-read

      Jul 12, 2022

      cult classic by sloane crosley “Some of us get smaller denominations from the romance ATM that others,” ponders Lola, a 37-year-old New Yorker, who for various reasons has had about 15 five-month relationships. Now, just as she’s about to commit

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Sep 8, 2021

      Great Read
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Baxter, Reyes, and More

      Nov 17, 2020

      Here's a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Charles Baxter, Dolores Reyes, and more—that are publishing this week. The post Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Baxter, Reyes, and More appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Reading CORNER

      Feb 26, 2023

      Writer Eva delivers a February to remember Pop music lovers who remember the ’90s are going to get a huge hit of nostalgia while reading this novel. Set in London, it brings the era and its sounds alive vividly. However, it is billed as a feel-good s

      3 min read

    Reviews for The Arsonist

    3.5/5

    126 ratings23 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      I had mixed feelings about this novel, until about the last third. The scales tipped when I realized that for once, the endings (multiple plot lines) were not going to be trite at all. There is a compassion in the writing of this book that sees people with the sense of the multi-dimensionality of human beings. I applaud the author for her endings! Also, having been "summer people" in a rural area all of my life, kudos for the keen grasp of the issues which arise in a lake resort area.
    • 4/5
      Good novel, nice characters, good pacing. But nothing super deep or dramatic or original. Glad to have read it, though.
    • 4/5
      Good read. I am (and have been for years) a fan of Sue Miller. She's a very talented writer and always has something valid to say about life and relationships. She can write about the ordinary in life and make it for me interesting and relevant.
    • 3/5
      After working for fifteen years in Africa, Frankie Rawley returns to her parents' home in Pomeroy, New Hampshire. It's time that Frankie decided what to do with the rest of her life.There is a fire on the first night Frankie is home. People speculated that it might have been an accident. During this time, Frankie spends time with her parents and notices the change in her father's health and memory.Other fires burn houses of summer residents and a town meeting is held. There is conflict between the wealthy summer residents who want more security and the full time residents who like things the way they were.Frankie moves to a home that her sister and brother-in-law were building. She meets Bud Jacobs the owner and publisher of a local paper. The form a romantic relationship.The descriptions of the small New Hampshire town and the way of life of the residents was well done. The reader could sympathise with the declining health of Frankie's father and the fear that Frankie's mother had about the increasing need of care.Someone is arrested for arson but the investigation and much of the questioning happens behind the scenes.The conflict of the novel comes from Frankie's deciding where she will spend her life, the decision that Frankie's mother must make as she learns that her husband probably has early Alzheimer's Disease, and the relationship between summer residents and full time residents of Pomeroy.
    • 4/5
      A really beautiful and thoughtful story of a woman returning from years of relief work in Africa to her parent's home in a small New Hampshire community. Uncertain of her own future, Frankie finds herself becoming more involved with her parents (with her father's onset of dementia) and with the owner of the town's newspaper. The comfort of belonging is counter to her need to be of greater use, of "having a life of her own."Miller gives us a deep understanding of Frankie and her conundrum, as well as those of her mother and of Bud, the newspaper editor. She understands motivation, desire, and regret, and helps the reader do the same.The story is set against a backdrop of a series of arsons in the small town, houses belonging to summer people. Usually unoccupied, occasionally not, the town drama hints at but leaves largely unexplored the potential of resentment between the townspeople and the summer people, and the bridge status of those like Frankie's parents, who turned a summer home into a permanent retirement solution. I wish more had been done with this underlying theme.Recommended.
    • 4/5
      A small town in New England, Frankie has returned after many years working in Africa, now in her forties she is looking for a sense of permanence. Her parents have retired and moved into the small town that they had previously only inhabited in summer. Many things are different, fires are being set that seem to be targeting only the homes of the summer people. Her parents are dealing with a big problem that may change the course of their lives. As the summer heats up so do the tensions in her family and town.My first impression was how very realistic this book was, the people, the fears as people who never locked their doors before find themselves going to extreme measures. The family problem that causes so much anguish and introspection. Trying to find a fulfilling way forward, a new path when one is over forty. Summer people versus the people who live their all year long. What makes a home? Is it the place or people one is with. All against the background of the fires.Even the ending is realistic even if not fully resolved. After all how many can say their lives are ever fully resolved at any point?ARC from publisher
    • 5/5
      This is such a good story, with many themes that would make it an excellent choice for a book club. 43-year-old Frankie Rowley has been doing aid work in Kenya for fifteen years, and "home" has changed while she's been away. Her parents have retired to live year-round in their New Hampshire summer home, and Frankie, staying with them, learns her father's age is catching up with him, and notices tension between summer people and locals that she never noticed in all their years as summer visitors.
    • 4/5
      Sue Miller is an author that I have read before(4 books). I don't feel compelled to read everything she has written but when a new book comes out I try to get it. The Arsonist is a solid book and as another reviewer mentioned it is a character driven slice of life story. The backdrop is a series of arsons taking place in a village in New Hampshire. This is a town that has a large "summer" population and these are the houses being attacked. The book deals which the divide between the townsfolk and summer people but mainly it deals with Frankie a 43 year old African aid worker who is visiting her parents who have retired to the their summer home. They are dealing with his dementia and her view of their "loveless" marriage. Throw in a romance between Frankie and Bud the owner of the town newspaper and you have a nice mix of people dealing with the various stages of life against the reality of the fires. It takes place in 1998 so you can have a context(understand the technology of the time). One particular insight I like in the book was how Sylvia the mother viewed her adult children. She talked about how she missed them when they were gone but not the adult children but the children of her imagination, the young children who needed her. I enjoyed this insight along with her remark that she never really knew her children as whole adults who had jobs and whole other lives outside of the family place. The book is told through the eyes of Frankie, Sylvia, and Bud(the owner of the newspaper). It is filled with these observations of life and the realization of what stage of life we are in. The book ends with uncertainty which I like. Not a big fan of real concrete conclusions. At 300 pages it was a good read and a good introduction to Sue Miller.
    • 5/5
      Great book! I don't think she has ever written a second-rate book, but this has to be one of Miller's best, I reckon. I had this on my "To Be Read" list for a while, thinking that I didn't really want to read a story about an arsonist. It turns out that although it is indeed a story where arson features prominently, it is also a story about America, small-town justice, small-town sociology, dementia, mother-daughter relationships, western aid programs in third world countries, idealism, small newspapers, and relationships between people who are beyond their 20s. I have a personal interest in the dementia issue so it was easy to get my attention to that aspect, but Miller led me irresistibly into all the complexities of the lives of these 21st century middle class Americans (yes, I'm definitely middle class too). I was very emotionally affected by the book, but not in that tear-jerker kind of obvious way that other authors try to employ. It's the verisimilitude of Miller's situations that got me involved enough to really feel the emotionality. The book has been tagged "romance" by some people, but that's crap. This is a book about real relationships and real situations. If you read it expecting a nice neat story about an arsonist, with a happy ending for the good guys and the arsonist going to prison, then you'll be very disappointed, as many reviewers were. Real life isn't like that.
    • 2/5
      This book just did not live up to the Sue Miller standard. It felt slow and forced with a story that never really took hold. I read through to the end hoping things would wrap up well but was left unsatisfied. There are other Sue Miller books worth reading before this one.
    • 3/5
      3 1/2 stars really. I found the main character annoying and tiresome, but liked other characters and the story. Another book I liked where I didn't like the main character but liked the writing and the other characters.
    • 4/5
      There is something so elegant about Sue Millers writing. Trying to explain what I was reading to my husband I began, "It's a book about relationships...." and he immediately translated into "love story". I said no, its about the complexities of human relationships. I was engaged on every page and sympathetic towards all the characters. I was especially touched by the mother, Sylvia, when faced with the mental demise of her brilliant husband and her confession of how she did not love him and had not for a long time. The prospect of caring for him out of a sense of duty was making her resentful. There was just something about every character that I could relate to and that is a gift that Ms.Miller has above and beyond most authors.
    • 5/5
      This novel is all about dealing with uncertainty. The more I think about it, the better it gets. The first uncertainty, the one that names the book, is fire. Are the fires arson? Which house will be next, and who would do such a thing? Are they class related or just for fun. Once someone has been charged could that really be the person? The next uncertainties revolve around Sylvia and Alfie. Did Sylvia marry the wrong man? Were her reasons wrong? Did she ever really love her children? Alfie's intellect was always the praiseworthy part of their relationship, was her life work really only secondary? And poor Alfie himself - does he have Alzheimer's or some other condition like it that allows him some return to reason on occasion? His condition manifests itself by his getting lost. Does he get lost on purpose or by accident? Then there's Frankie who has spent fifteen years in Africa doing relief work. Does any of that matter when the more relief that is offered the more rebels take advantage of it and increase their attacks? How could it be that with all the tragedy in Africa American news is saturated with titillation about Monica Lewinsky? There are also the question of what does it mean to have a home. Can a person live to their potential in a small town? Should a person consider life meaningful if revolves around only one person? To me the best part of the book is the ending, but I grow more and more to value uncertainty.
    • 5/5
      I loved it apart from the disappointing ending
    • 4/5
      I like Sue Miller's novels a lot because I like the way she writes. She gives you enough of the characters so that you can easily picture them moving in their spaces. I sort of said "okaaaaayyyyyyy" with the ending because I probably knew it was coming. Just because it's a novel doesn't mean the ending has to be tied up with a bow---her partial epilogue of just a few paragraphs as well as the entire handling of the idea of an arsonist in a community were probably more of a picture of true life than the possible fluff a novel often provides.
    • 4/5
      It was enjoyable. A slow meandering through a small town and its inhabitants. Not all the story lines were neatly sewn up.
    • 2/5
      Well-written, but not very engaging.
    • 3/5
      Several house fires within a short period of time had residents in Pomeroy, New Hampshire, fearful. The fires were started in the early morning hours and occurred in summer residences that were unoccupied – families had not yet arrived for the season. It seemed there was an arsonist in this small town.I was immediately swept in by the promising beginning, but the storyline soon fell flat, and my expectations were not met. Unfortunately this book had little or no impact on me. A few positive comments – The descriptive writing was beautifully crafted and most of the characters were vibrantly drawn. My favorite characters were Alfie and Sylvia, and this part of the story did capture my attention. Alfie’s failing health and his early stages of Alzheimer’s, along with their lost love and failing marriage drew me in. Their story developed with emotion throughout, but suddenly it seemed to be dropped, and went nowhere – disappointing. Bud and Frankie’s romance seemed to take over the storyline and the arson fires took a back seat. There was no intrigue and very little emotion connected to the fires – little to no suspense, whatsoever. Fires started by an arsonist should have been a terrifying experience, with a crescendo of suspense, but it just didn’t happen.And finally, the ending was disappointing– not a satisfying conclusion. I’m sorry to say, this book failed to capture my excitement. 2.5 starsI received an ARC as a Goodreads First–Reads Winner. All opinions shared in this review are my own.
    • 4/5
      Even though this book is called “The Arsonist”, I felt the storyline about the fires being set in a small town was a side note to the actual heart of the story.To me, this was a story about home. What defines a home for a person – is it a building, or a group of people, or a city or even a country? To quote Robert Frost, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” But before that – you have to discover what home means to you – find that place and those people.The main characters of the story are Sylvia and Alfie, a newly retired married couple, and their daughter Frankie. (There is another daughter, Liz, but she doesn’t play much of a role.) Sylvia and Alfie have just moved into what was their summer home in a small New England town, and Frankie returns to that home after many years in Africa. Throughout the book, all three are trying to adjust to these new facets of their lives, while also being in the midst of a series of fires in the town. Sylvia is trying to adapt to retirement, her husband’s health issues, and the idea of a permanent residence in a place that was only a transitory part of her life. Her feelings are mixed about her home, and what her life will be like there. “But mostly the house arrived in her life as a place where should could be alone, free of Alfie and whatever his current distraction or passion was. As it seemed this solitude was what she had needed all along. She’d go up and stay for a weekend, occasionally for a week, by herself and return feeling glad to see him, ready for his energy to rescue her again, as it had when she was younger and unsure of her own direction.” That had been how she has viewed her house in the past, but she needs to reorient herself now that she will be living here year-round.Her daughter Frankie has never led a very settled life. She’s worked and lived thousands of miles away, in a culture and country that could hardly be more different than where she finds herself now. She can’t seem to decide what she wants from her life, or even where she can picture her future. “Maybe, Frankie thought, home – what felt like home – was just a way of being in the world that felt Alfie-like to him, like being the person he’d been before the changes that were slowly turning him into someone else began. Maybe by home he meant the time when he felt whole, when he felt like himself. The time – and perhaps one of the places – where the world seemed to recognize him in some deep way, seemed to say, Come in, we’ve been expecting you, exactly you.”Another character, Bud, has moved to town from Washington D.C. – also seeking a home. “He had conscientiously worked at it. He had wanted it – a home. But the conversation in the town hall tonight had made that seem suddenly a contentious issue to him, as though the fires were somehow framing a question he needed to answer for himself about whose home Pomeroy was, whose experience defined it – the chatty, self-assured summer people or the observant, perhaps resentful, year-round folks. A question about who owned the town and who merely used it.”There is very little about this book that is settled. While a great deal happens in the book, nothing is ever finished or changed or resolved conclusively. The characters do make choices and make changes in their lives, but even once those choices are made, there are loose ends – there is no sense of finality in anything. Sylvia tries to counsel Frankie on what she should do to move forward – even as she herself is trying to figure out how best to function in her own life. “I guess there’s a lot that can compel you that perhaps can’t…sustain you. Sometimes those things, the things that sustain you, are more or less accidents. Off to the side of whatever you though compelled you in the first place.” Everything feels a bit adrift in “The Arsonist”. There are no definite answers or storylines that are neatly wrapped up. While it may be a bit frustrating for a reader, it is realistic. This book is truly a “slice of life” novel. Short of Frankie’s arrival back in the States, there is no set start and certainly no happy ending. The story doesn’t end – it simply stops. The reader knows the lives of the characters continue, but that the curtain has been drawn and our glimpse into their lives is over.
    • 4/5
      Just as with real life, not every thread in the story has a definitive end or resolution. That bothered some people, but for me it lent a lot of realism and that’s why I keep returning to Sue Miller’s books. She presents her characters as if through a keyhole and because of that narrow view, not all will be revealed. For me the most moving piece of the story isn’t the fires, but is the situation with Sylvia and Alfie. Recently I watched both my in-laws age, sicken and die within a few years of each other. It’s led me to believe that old age is a curse; a cosmic joke sent by the cold, unfeeling universe. My father-in-law went in a similar way to Alfie. A once perfectly smart, upright and multi-faceted human being was reduced to a timorous man unsure of his prospects, past or his feet. Alzheimers is a bitch. In the story Alfie is aware that he is deteriorating. His admissions are heartbreaking and I only hope my FIL didn’t know. When the mind is stripped, the personality is gone and Sylvia’s plight is worse for it; if she ever even slightly loved or admired or felt loyalty to the man Alfie was, what does she owe the man he’s become? The realization that Alfie overheard her confession of non-love to Frankie was a great dramatic moment. Very emotional and powerful. His flight became all the more distressing for the unknown quality of what he might have already done. What the searchers might find. At first I suspected Alfie of the fires. Especially when his disappearance seemed deliberate. I was wrong, but I think maybe the rest of the town was too when they finally had someone in custody. The fact that we’ll never know bothers me a little, but it fits with the slice of life rendering of the story as a whole. The only aspect that seems fully resolved is Frankie’s relationship with Bud. I like the way unfolded that and didn’t agree with one reviewer’s idea that the sex scenes were graphic. They haven’t read graphic if they think that was it. Frankie’s character was the one I connected with least, but in the end I think even I came to understand a bit about her. I guess she needed to try to be a traditional adult in the end which I guess is why she came back to Bud. It bothered me that of course he knew she’d return. It never even occurred to him that she wouldn’t because that’s what women always do; sacrifice themselves for men. Women are always the ones to move, give up careers/dreams, have families, adjust their whole lives to fit the men in them and Frankie, as willful as she thinks she is, does exactly that. I was a bit disappointed in that, but it follows. The epilogue suggests she still had some wandering to do, but largely she stayed put. I’m tempted to say that she stopped being herself, but maybe it was time to try out another aspect of her personality. Maybe she was tired of being so disconnected and irresponsibly responsible. The time for teenage rebellion against her mother and similar role models was long past and maybe she realized there could be satisfaction there, too.
    • 2/5
      I hate to be a curmudgeon, but boy, was this book a disappointment. The characters were shallow and some seemed totally pointless. The plot was disjointed with themes that had nothing to do with the arson investigation I thought that the book was supposed to be about. I muddled through because the reader on the audio was excellent; had it been a print book, I would have closed it after the first couple of chapters. There was unnecessary foul language and the crude descriptions of sex scenes seemed to be completely irrelevant to the storyline. The author even tried to incorporate politics with some idle mention of Clinton, Monica Lewinsky and an attack on the embassy in Nairobi; neither of the themes were developed, and they had no real bearing on anything. In the end I wondered, who was her audience, or rather what kind of an audience was she now trying to attract? Surely it wasn’t the same one that read her previous books. My kind of reader doesn’t need to know if the character “stopped to take a piss” or has a “hard-on”. Why was the smutty language even necessary?Basically, the story is about a family, Sylvia, the mother; Alfie, the father; and Frankie, the daughter. Frankie, 43, has lived in Kenya for the last 15 years employed as an aide worker. She is unmarried and fairly wanton in her ways. Most of the book describes the fact that she relished her life and freedom in Africa, was very dedicated to helping the people there, and she slept around with several available men. Her mother and father had recently retired and moved to her mother’s childhood vacation home in a very quiet town in New Hampshire. When Frankie decided to take a sabbatical, to figure out what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, she returned there, and within hours of her arrival, an arsonist hit the scene. During the ensuing weeks, she met Bud, the editor of the local newspaper and had an affair with him. At the same time, she discovered that her father was having a problem with his memory, was having hallucinations, and was sometimes disoriented and confused. Her mother was not sure she could handle her future as his caregiver. There were few resources to help her in their small community. I kept asking myself, what is this story about? Where is it going? For me, it went pretty much nowhere. I didn’t like Frankie, and she was the main character. Although she participated in an entirely altruistic profession, she was flippant in her own life, almost unable to make any real, lasting attachments. Furthermore, she never seemed to grow out of the habit of treating people dismissively. In summary, the book is about several unsatisfying love affairs, an inconclusive arson investigation, and a thin exploration of diseases affecting the mind and memory. Mostly, it seemed to be about Frankie’s confusion about her own needs, which I don’t believe were ever fully realized.
    • 1/5
      THE ARSONIST by Sue MillerI enjoyed this very well written book until I got to the end. Then I felt cheated. Where was the conclusion? What happened? Who was guilty? Who died? Who loved?Frankie and Bud were clearly drawn, likeable characters. Frankie’s life in Africa was detailed enough to make her believable if unknown and unknowable. Bud was always known and knowable. Sylvia and Alfie were good foils for Frankie and Bud. The fires seemed peripheral to the story, unnecessary even. Did I like this book? While I was reading it – unequivocally yes! Did I like it once I finished the book – not so much. The last 10 pages seemed like a cop out – I don’t know what to do with these characters and their story, so I’ll just end it. Very unsatisfying.1 of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      I liked the book. It was interesting and the medical stuff was exactly correct. I am unsure whether I wanted the big reveal or whether the speculation at the end was important. She is an enjoyable writer.